The present invention relates to architectural structural materials and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for compressing agricultural fiber, such as straw, to form the dominant component of a load bearing and insulating panel board usable in building.
Mankind has been intrigued for many years with the concept of using waste agricultural products, such as straw, to build relatively permanent domiciles and other generally permanent buildings. This concept includes replacing with panel boards made from agricultural fibers, the typical floor, wooden or metal stud wall, and ceilings and roof constructions normally used for on-site fabrication. The panel boards of this nature made in the past have the structural and insulation properties of the conventional structures that they replace. A previous apparatus designed to produce boards of agricultural fibrous material for panels of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,322.
Although the basic concept has been around for some time and many have attacked the problem of providing an appropriate core from agricultural fibrous material, various anomalies have prevented the commercial dominance of this concept over standard approaches. One problem is that of providing agriculture fiber having board cores of a reliably consistent density. Another is the relatively high cost of manufacturing such a fiber core.